A case study of Web Content Accessibility of 15 top-ranked Universities of India

Abstract Accessibility of websites are very important for making it web-based information for persons with disabilities which further reinforced by COVID-19 pandemic. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) has been developed by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and accordingly Guidelines for Indian Government Websites (GIGW) has also been developed. In this case study we studied the home page of websites of 15 top ranked Higher Education Institutions of India ranked by National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), started in 2016 for availability of basic accessibility features. The ranking used is of latest one i.e. of 2020. Qualitative observation has been made of the home page of each 15 universities and the NIRF website. Eleven fundamental accessibility features were taken in to account. Results revealed that most of these top15 ranked universities lack even basic accessibility feature making their websites inaccessible for persons with disabilities. Options like font size, screen reader, high contrast text also were not found on may website of top-15 universities. The website of NIRF had no basic features out of 11 considered in the study indicating a very poor condition of digital accessibility features of website of top ranked universities which needs urgent attention to achieve equity and inclusion as promised in NEP 2020.